continuing the theme of the post in a totally non political way-- about learning what the public wants--

Nokia, the finnish telecommunications company, has been very successfull by watching what the kids do.. japanese companies too. just as children seem to recreate language every generation.. it seems children recreate technology..

the kids in finnland use phones to make calls but also for scores of other things the engineers never thought of.. so Nokia has a constanty changing group of kids who are a "focus group" Nokia focuses on what they like, what they use, what they want.. and makes phones for kids--- and surprise, surprise! most adults like the features the kids have thought up!

(the nokia tv commercial about using cell phones to track schedules of street car/public transportation is true-- the kids do track the trolleys in order to attack them with snowballs, but adults use the same feature to plan their commutes.)


my other obsession